Insights into Bacteriophage Application in Controlling Vibrio Species

Abstract

Bacterial infections from various organisms including Vibrio sp. pose a serious hazard to humans in many forms from clinical infection to affecting the yield of agriculture and aquaculture via infection of livestock. Vibrio sp. is one of the main foodborne pathogens causing human infection and is also a common cause of losses in the aquaculture industry. Prophylactic and therapeutic usage of antibiotics has become the mainstay of managing this problem, however, this in turn led to the emergence of multidrug resistant strains of bacteria in the environment; which has raised awareness of the critical need for alternative non-antibiotic based methods of preventing and treating bacterial infections. Bacteriophages – viruses that infect and result in the death of bacteria – are currently of great interest as a highly viable alternative to antibiotics. This article provides an insight into bacteriophage application in controlling Vibrio species as well underlining the advantages and drawbacks of phage therapy.

Isolates as models to study bacterial ecophysiology and biogeochemistry

“…The initial observation of bacterial ghosts has been investigated and questioned by several authors (Heissenberger et al 1996, Luna et al 2002, Jones & Lennon 2010, and a reliable protocol to determine the fraction of live and functional cells is still lacking. Because of the renewed interest in phage therapy instead of treatments using antibiotics, the molecular tools used by phages to open the bacterial cell now start to shed light on the mechanisms involved in ghost formation (Haidinger et al 2003, Letchumanan et al 2016. These studies may help distinguish between phage-lysed ghost cells and intact cells including the actively growing cells in situ.…”

Vertical variation in Vibrio community composition in Sansha Yongle Blue Hole and its ability to degrade macromolecules

“…Currently, the genus Vibrio contains more than 110 species, many of which are known as causative agents of foodborne related illnesses, which have a huge impact on public health and management (Lee and Raghunath 2018;Letchumanan et al 2015;Pruzzo et al 2005). The major pathogenic Vibrio species include Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus (Letchumanan et al 2016).…”

A review on the characteristics, taxanomy and prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes

“…A non-antibiotic approach of utilizing bacteriophages in the aquaculture and agriculture fields may help to manage the increasing antimicrobial resistance problem. Bacteriophages have great advantages such as having host specificity, environmental friendly, readily discovered and isolated from the environment, and cost effective compared to antibiotics (79) . In addition, hactery farmers may adapt the method of switching antibiotics used in the aquatic field from time to time in order to allow withdrawal of antibiotic resistance profile in strains (80) .…”